Many alternatives to the Paulson rescue plan have been floated in the last few weeks, but this one has to beat them all.
John Hagelin, a self-described "world-renowned quantum physicist," says large groups of experts practicing advanced transcendental meditation techniques of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi can be mobilized in New York City and other global financial centers to defuse stress and fear.
Hagelin claims nearly 2,000 people at the "Maharishi University of Management" in Fairfield, Iowa, are already "helping to calm the nation in the midst of the global crisis."
But he advises that "a larger, more powerful group of 8,000 experts (the square root of one percent of the world's population) is needed to neutralize worldwide fears and re-establish confidence in the global markets."
The cost to establish this group on a permanent basis, Hagelin said, "would be negligible compared to what has been lost in a single hour during the current financial crisis."
My first thought was this was a complete fabrication with no basis in reality, but the Associated Press recently documented Hagelin's role in the transcendental meditation movement in the aftermath of the death of its founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
So if today's new plan to recapitalize banks doesn't work, I'm thinking Congress has probably already given Treasury the authority it would need to back an expansion of the Maharishi University of Management under The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.
It's comforting to know we haven't tried everything yet.
Isn't it?
